Eric
built and demoed a small tracked robot using encoder sensors and
buttons from a mouse.

John
demo'ed robot guidence using three very cool robots that were made
out of PVC frames with lawn mower wheels that you could purchase from
Home Depot and motors that you can extract from cordlress
screwdrivers. One had a laptop for a brain. He was also using XBee
for wireless communications. You can see more at www.protbot.co.nf
You can e-mail John at: John@protbot.com. Super demo, thanks John.

Charlie
talked about robot vision in particular the response of the human eye
to white light. When we see a white LED we are really seeing a few
red photons, a few blue photons and a few cyan photons. This can skew
the response of sensors because you really don't have all the
wavelengths of light. Charlie then talked about a tool that will
polish mirrors for use in telescopes. Very nice!

Jake
demo'ed different types of light bulbs to see how the bulb type
affects the color of the light. 2700K is the temp of a normal
incandescent bulb and it has a yellow tinge. Also 6500K is the temp
of a really white light.

Next
up was Li and he showed us his cell phone projector. Then he showed
us pictures of his balancing robot. Finally Li talked about the FIRST
technical challenge contest in NYC that he attended. Jake then showed
us a short video of what they are trying to do.

Next
Jim talked about his new birthday present - a Raspberry Pi (a
single-board Linux computer that retails for $35).